PROJECT PROPOSAL

In light of the group discussion last week, here is a summary of the ideas and issues that will be introduced and discussed in our group wiki on the issue of 'Identity'. As we progress with this module our ideas and focus points are subject to change, however at this present point I think its safe to assume that the group members are all in agreement over the following information. Our Project will fall under two main headings, the issue of online identity-what it means, and the idea of deception within online identity. Within these two subheadings will be various questions we may wish to cover:

What is Identity?

• Exploring the question of identity, What is our identity in our real lives, how do we define it and what it means to have an online identity in contrast to a 'real life' identity. Whether there are any differences between these concepts? Does identity change once we enter cyberspace? why? Theorists/sources of interest may include the following:

Understanding Human Behavior in Cyberspace By Yair Amichai-Hamburger (2005, Oxford University Press), (How the Internet enables people to express elements of their personality that they cannot express in the real word, the social psychology).

Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice By Martha MacCaughey, Michael D. Ayers (2003, Routledge), (understanding the impact of the Internet on politics today, collective online identity).

Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice By Andrew Feenberg (2004 Rowman & Littlefield)

Sex in Cyberspace: Men Who Pay for Sex by Sarah Earle, Keith Sharpe (2007Ashgate Publishing, Ltd), (self-explanitory title! Research based on online forums and chat rooms)

Identity: Cultural Change and the Struggle for Self By Roy F. Baumeister (1986Oxford University Press)

Culture and Identity: Critical Theories By Ross Abbinnett, chapter entitled 'Postmodern and the aesthetic' (2003 Sage Publications Inc).

http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/TGAME.html

www.newmediastudies.com/resourc2.html

www.bathtub.yoga.com/blog/myspace-vs-facebook-or-why-facebook-needs-artistpa ges.html

www.reviews.digitaltrends.com/guide92.html

• Looking at social networking sites and how they are constructed. Who do they aim at? Is there a 'type' of person who joins these sites, and does it say something about one's 'identity' depending on which site you choose to be part of? eg. The online society you involve yourself with and how this may impact you. Does identity change once a social networking site enters the equation? Sites we may choose to look at (and have already looked at), are primarily facebook and myspace, although bebo and univillage are also of interest, as well as WELL and equivelant sites

• How do Myspace and Facebook differentiate? Myspace and the idea of a 'glorifed CV', which is used by most people for networking and meeting people across the world. Facebook on the other hand being almost in the same vein of Friendsreunited.com because you only add people you know or have known, and it being used by primarily by university students. In addition it is arguably more user friendly.

• Give an example (or two) of a case whereby online identity online has played in key role in changing someone's life. (currently finding examples of this within our group)

DECEPTION:

• Issues that can be covered in this section are ideas concerning online deception in regards to identity. Are people who they say they are? Ideas about Identity theft. False Profiles on social networking sites and how much this really matters, if at all.
• Dating websites may also fall under this category, and how much deception (if at all) is used when trying to lure those of the opposite sex
• 'bands' online, I know through personal experience of working within the online PR of music that myspace music is not regulated and controlled by the 'band' or the artists themselves (once they become well-known), the PR team will usually monitor, change, update and 'add' friends on the myspace of various artists posing as the artist themselves. Is this deception? or Publicity? Where does one draw the line.

Other things to take into consideration:

• The work of Erving Goffman

Identity theft online, and further thoughts

Earlier this week I was watching TV, and found myself being drawn into an episode of BBC 1's consumer complaints program 'Watchdog' (if truth be told I was actually waiting for Eastenders to start and stumbled across this by accident...a very informative accident). The subject matter being addressed was the issue of identity theft online especially through social networking sites. This information proved to be gold dust in regards to our Wiki on identity, as it addressed the terrifying issue of how one's identity can be snatched based on a few minor nuggets of information a website may provide.

Here is a snippet from the report:

24 October 2007

Dawn Telfer didn't worry about sharing her details online until someone stole more than just her identity. "I went home and logged on to my online accounts and I was more than £6,000 overdrawn," she says.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/internet/internet_20071024.shtml)

The report goes on to say that by having a few simple bits on information on yourself such as full name and D.O.B, fraudsters can do a quick check on you on other publicly avaliable websites and instantly piece together all the information they need to know. In fact the program themselves conducted an experiment to assess how true this notion was with a willing participant. They went through the simple notions a criminal would go through in order to commit identity theft (based only on a few simple details), and managed to open up an online bank account, and credit card in the persons name!! Both of which were instantly accepted.

To read the whole report on the BBC website go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/internet/internet_20071024.shtml

The idea of online identity theft on social networking sites is something I feel would be useful to touch upon in our Wiki in regards to deception. Its not just fraud in terms of 'theft' that people may worry about, it can also be fraud in the simple fact that someone can make a profile posing as you. This is not uncommon in the Myspace world (where there are 10 Madonnas, 20 Paris Hiltons and a handful of Homer simpsons...who isnt even a person!!) How many people therefore can make a Myspace page acting as you??

There may be several reasons someone could to this; admiration, flattery, hate, revenge, humiliation....whatever the reason its very possible. A friend of mine broke up with her long term partner and made a joke about setting up a fake profile acting as him, with really cringe worthy interests and hobbies, to make people think he was a weirdo. I don't think she did it in the end, but it doesnt change the fact that she could've done, all she needed was a picture and a password (and possibly photoshop, if she was going to get really evil with the idea!)

Information such as the above makes us undeniably aware of the multiple dangers of the net, and how it can be misused if put into the hands of the wrong people, however this isn't something I particularly want to keep focusing on. One thing I'm going to really try and avoid at all costs is coming across as 'anti' in the group Wiki. I'd really like our arguments to be balanced and well structured, rather than introspective. Its so easy to be biased especially when you're constantly bombarded with information from the media about the internet, and how its only used by geeks with no friends and paedophiles who groom children. As with life, thats only one reality of what happens, positive as well of negative things are likely to come from such technology.

This blog is so funny!! and so true! I had to post this as I feel it is relevant to the whole 'making my way around the blogging world', a bit like checking out the neighbours garden, to see if their grass is greener :)

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

Second Life, Virtual reality worlds and Stigma

Am I a bigot? thats the first question I asked myself prior to my multitude of attacks on the concept of 'Second life.'

Prior to Monday's lecture, I had neither heard of, nor seen 'Second life', and therefore once I was informed of it I initially found this website, and its entire concept, well, odd.

I didnt understand why anyone would want to have a virtual reality 'life', and virtual reality 'cars' and pay real money to purchase CGI houses and land that literally, doesnt exist. The icing on this cake of absurdity (for me anyway), was the fact that a woman became a millionaire on second life! what!?....It was all too much.

The discussion did make me question my views, because I like to think of myself as an open minded person. Why do I find a virtual reality existence ridiculous? Why does this concept shake my foundations of thought? Does it scare me? Am I curious?

A point was made that the world is what we make it, us as individuals, some people read, some people paint, and some people use the web, as means of escapism. 'Art is life' is what someone once quoted (somewhere...I have heard this quote several times so i definitly am not making it up!), so if art is 'life', why cant the web be life? If your main medium of escapism becomes your 'core' why does it have to be tangible?

The surrealism movement involved a whole bunch of people doing all kinds of bizzare things in excess to get closer to their subconcious (drugs, starvation, lack of sleep, alcohol), and thats how they lived, as close to their subconcious as their physical bodies would allow. We admire and praise the surrealism movement as one of the great art movements of our time. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, who is it who decides how people live? whether it be in a virtual reality world, on high on drugs trying to get close to their pysche! If people see 'Second life' as their existence, as their source of reality, as their 'art', fine, why am I attaching stigma to it??

Certain things came up in our discussion as being 'dangers' of 'Second life', and other social networking sites, (in fact I am the main culprit for harping on about pyschos and paedophiles using the web to kill people, aren't I melodramatic!). Then the very valid point came up that we're just as likely to get killed, stalked, abused in real life (if not more) then on the net.

Someone mentioned the idea of meeting people on the internet, and this also created a rather animated discussion. Why do we ussume those who use the internet to meet people are loners, unattractive and wear glasses? I use msn to talk to my friends, I use facebook to keep in touch with those who now live in Birmingham etc, and I use forums to voice my opinions (usually rants) on music, movies etc etc, so that means i'm using the web to correspond with people all the time. Why does it become socially frowned upon when you 'meet' someone online??

The idea of meeting people online becomes a real 'thing' because we cant see them, so they may not be who they say they are. However on the other hand you could be living with norman bates jnr as your other half for 20 years and not know...its all relative. I find this thought really interesting, so I'm going to use it as a focus in our identity Wiki, (the others are getting some stuff together on some other points raised, so we're gonna put everything forward to one another on friday and see what happens).

I was also rather annoyed that nobody agreed with my facebook/myspace concept!! the class fiercly disputed my views on facebook as being for friends and myspace being more for numbers by claiming they get added 'all the time' by people they dont know. I'm gonna stick to my guns (and STATISTICS) and say i STILL think that people are more likely to add friends and aquaintences on facebook, and randoms on myspace. (i've asked my friends and they agree! maybe its just in my network of friends?)

Group, Online identity, Facebook & Myspace

Our Group met earlier in the week in order to discuss our ideas, thoughts and roughly go over the concepts and ideas that we think will go into our work. The group, consists of myself, John, Alisha and Kristina (as far as i know). They were all kind enough to fill in the blanks of monday's session, which I unfortunatly couldnt attend due to flu.

The chosen topic was online identity, and several ideas were brought to the table; Is there a clear definition of 'online' identity? can this change? Do we all, to a degree, change our identity when we join sites such as facebook or myspace? What about privacy issues?

Both Alisha and myself actually have a facebook account, and one very interesting thing I must comment on regarding facebook, myspace and possibly even high five, is the online 'etiquette' of these sites, and what it says about the users.

Facebook is a popular site for students, particulary university students. I've heard somewhere through the grapevine, that facebook was set up specifically with university students in mind. This is apparent, as when you join, one of the FIRST things they ask is you is which university, college or school you attend. This is partly to automatically place you in the 'search category' of those who attend the same university as you, thus filtering out randoms, and making it easier for you to find your friends online. I also think one of the other reasons they do this is because they WANT unversity students to join (as opposed to 40+ housewives?) Heres a site that sums up sum stats on how popular facebook is: http://mashable.com/2007/03/01/facebook-beats-myspace-and-youtube-among-young-adults/

When you join, you can join more than one network, e.g. I am Sara, and i attend LCC, lived in london, and used to attend St Marylebone School of Performing Arts. Therefore I can have london, LCC, and st marylebone as my 'networks' so that anyone from any of these locations can find me more easily. Also on facebook when you 'add' a person to your friends list it will automatically ask you how you know the person, (and gives you several possible options).

This is a massive hint that, technically, you should only really be adding people you actual know in 'real life' outside of the virtual world. In fact the last box on this extensive list of 'how do you know this person?' is a box that says 'we are facebook friends'. I must note that NOBODY wants to tick this box (and its deemed a little strange to add somebody you dont actually know)! I spent almost 40 mins the other day going through lists of my friends friends, and they all actually knew the people on their list (does that make sense?). Its almost an unwritten rule that you dont join facebook to add loads of people, which seems the total opposite of Myspace.

Myspace on the other hand is whole different ballgame. Myspace encourages users to add as many people as they can to increase popularity and almost compete as to who has the most friends. It must also be noted that if you add too many people on facebook they actually close your account! So with myspace I guess you have to try and make your profile as publicly appealing as possibly to win over a thousands (literally) of new 'friends'.

http://mashable.com/2007/06/10/facebook-hammers-myspace-on-almost-all-key-features/ (this site is incredible, it gives an extensive list of the pros and cons of both Myspace & Facebook)

Ok so how does this have anything to do with identity? I was discussing with Alisha how with Myspace you almost have to sell yourself; make yourself a little more eccentric/confident/attractive/fiesty (delete the appropriate box) as possible in order to be 'added'. You can create your own background, insert slideshows, change colours, inserts images, make the page as quirky as possible, to basically look as cool as possible (which begs the question...If you were such an 'exciting person' would you really have the time to sit there do all this!). So this means that the person you are projecting on the page, and the person you really are may very well be two totally different people. Alisha made a great point and refered to Myspace as a glorified online CV. I agree.

The Introduction in Brief

A overview of the internet and all the vast potentials of it were given in todays lecture including a 'history' as it were of how the world wide web was formed, and the primary differences between the internet and the www. The Wiki was also set up. I'm still rather confused about the concept of a wiki, and was exceptionally surprised to discover that the general public could infact edit Wikipedia, (thus confirming that I will no longer be using this as an academic source in any future bibliographies!). I am sure however that through the group formation (as well as trial and error), things will no doubt become clearer (almost like setting up a myspace, and discovering how to insert a slideshow!).

In short today the following was covered:

• Distinguished main differences between World Wide Web, and Internet (www. pages and the actual internet), and identified 'http' protocols, ictp & how the information is thus disseminated.
  
  http://info.cern.ch/: CERN-the world's first-ever web server- Tim Berners Lee
  http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Content/Chapters/AboutCERN/Achievements/WorldWideWeb/WWW-en.html- Explination into how www actually works.

• Internet dates back as to mid seventies and deals with the transfere of information, whereas the first www. page was formed in 1991.

• Formed blog and Wiki
  
  NB: sound files take up a great deal of space, thus to be taken into consideration once groups are formed and wiki starts to take shape.
  
  http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/